| Warrior Queen |
 |
|
By Daniel Lane The Sun-Herald January 6, 2008 Don't let looks deceive you, high jumper Claire Mallett combines an iron will with a killer instinct, writes Daniel Lane. Paul Watson recognises the look in Claire Mallett's eyes as the same he's seen in the eyes of the warrior-athletes he pushed as head trainer for the Cronulla and Penrith NRL teams. It tells him the high jumper has found strength in a situation that brings out weakness and doubt in others. Martin Lang had "the look" before he'd commit himself to charging into brick wall-like defensive lines for Cronulla. Scott Sattler had it that grand final night when he made a miraculous tackle to help Penrith win the 2003 grand final. Watson was pleased to see it in Mallett as he demanded she again run up the unforgiving Wanda sand hills. The 23-year-old Olympic aspirant would be frustrated to take one step forward only to slide the equivalent of three steps back when the sand gave way under her feet. The session was another stint in the athletes' furnace, a process designed to harden them at training so they produce their best when it matters most. It's the same principle that decrees a prized vase is merely a lump of clay until it's glazed and placed into an oven. "Claire is physically and mentally strong," Watson says. "She is single-minded and focused. I wish I could bottle the strength she has because it would benefit society, though the crazy thing is everyone has it. The reason people like Claire and other athletes stand out the way they do is because they have the courage and conviction to make the sacrifices others don't - or won't. "I've said it before, she's a high jumper reaching for the stars but Claire is doing the training to ensure she'll grab a couple." Her coach, Ian Garrett, says she also performs better in competition "when the heat is on". Mallett, a graphic design artist financing her Olympic dream by working in a coffee shop at beachside Cronulla, will need to summon every watt of the energy and strength Watson speaks of when she starts her campaign to qualify for Beijing in next weekend's Sydney Track Classic at Sydney Olympic Park. She must clear another 10 centimetres to qualify for the Olympics and must then endure the gut churning as she waits - and watches - to see if the likes of arch rivals Petrina Price and Ellen Pettitt better her mark. "I will have to jump a personal best just to qualify," says Mallett, who finished sixth at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006. "And while that seems daunting - it's funny how the height always seems like a barrier, because 170cm was hard when I had to break that, then 180 - they're all barriers, but I've learned by clearing them that you can do it. "My coach is happy with the way I am jumping. He has designed my program to ensure I peak for the nationals, which double as the Olympic trials." To do what every high jumper aspires to and "float like the wind", Mallett must get the numerous complexities of her sport together. The high jumper's textbook states a successful jump is dictated by such variables as the take-off point and angles, numbers of steps on the curve and stride length. "I have a rhythm," Mallett says. "I have to run to a count now; I count my nine steps. However, I've moved my mark back four metres but I have kept the same number of steps, so they're big strides. It's a new routine and I have to get it right ... "I've been working on my fitness doing boxing, weight sessions, sprints, plyometrics, sand hill runs and Pilates. It's helped me with my core strength, and that's important for high jumping. It's also been a balancing act not to put weight on because a high jumper needs to be skinny to clear that bar." Mallett says the two hours of competition are easier to handle than the butterflies that would riot in her belly when she was a sprinter. "I'd get so much more nervous waiting to sprint than I did before the high jump," she said. "It might be over in a few seconds, but I'd feel sick when I had to crouch and wait for the race to start. Perhaps it was because sprinters try to cram so much into such a short amount of time. I handle the pressure of competing in high jump much better. I switch off in between jumps, I'll try to sit down, get up and keep walking because you can't get too relaxed. I'll try to talk to the other jumpers but sometimes they don't appreciate that because they're in the zone. I'll also visualise my jumps ... but the good thing about it is you get time to do all that." Mallett knows what is required for her to make the Beijing Olympics. She knows everything possible about her local rivals - "we're close, we don't not like each other" - but don't bother asking her to name the high flyers setting the benchmarks in her sport. "My coach thinks it's funny I don't know that. They don't put high jump on television all that much. I do know, though, they have weird names ..." Mallett will focus on smashing her personal best to qualify for Beijing. It's only then that she might make it a point to fix "the warrior-athlete look" at the reigning world champion, Blanka Vlasic of Croatia. CLAIRE MALLETT Age: 23 Height: 180cm Weight: 65kg Coach: Ian Garrett Personal best: 1.86cm Career progression: 2002 - 1.76m, 2003 - 1.80m, 2004 - 1.84m, 2005 - 1.86m, 2006 -1.86m. Olympic record: 2.06m World record: 2.09m Commonwealth record: 2.06m Australian record: 1.98m |